Rai dropped down to the ground panting. The sun was never her friend, and under the intolerable heat, she tired more easily. Her injuries were far from healing completely, but she had no patience to wait for them to be deemed well enough for her to resume her training. Under the thick pads of her thumbs she felt the busy shop four floors below her. The loud stomping of the customers as well their loud and grating voices vibrating through the concrete added more to the annoyance she already felt. Her left hand gently touched the old cut- it was heated as it usually was, but it seemed to throb harder now. Her neck arched back, her eyes shutting tight as the pain coursed through her body in waves.

It was over in a minute. The pain was easily drawn away, but Rai still struggled to stand up. It was something else that weighed her down. Something that gnawed at her, something even now she couldn’t quite identify. She lifted her right hand to shield her eyes from the noon sun. She knew she should have taken a break before the sun was directly overhead, and her master’s voice reprimanding her echoed in her mind, but the frustration built up inside her. How could she have stopped when all the answers to her questions seemed so close?

She laid both palms flat at the side of her head and lifted her knees to her chest. In one push she sprung forward to her feet and picked up her swords on the floor, sheathing them behind her. Tension was building up in her nape, and the shinobi rolled her head to the side, slowly pulling at the muscles on the left side of her neck. There was no wind again today, and to Rai, it may have been an irrelevant observation, yet she couldn’t help but think it meant something more.

She found herself next inside the small furo inside her room. The short steep-sided wooden bathtub had been a pleasant surprise when she first came into her quarters, and she wondered if each room had been custom made for each member of Hell. It was a small tub, just enough to fit her with her legs slightly bent at the knee and the water level up to her chest. She could see a think film of dirt, sweat, and blood on top of the water, and she frowned. Furo were not meant for washing, but Rai had felt too lazy to shower first before dipping into the tub.

She needed to relax, but every time she would close her eyes, she was plagued by small brown eyes. She shook the memory away from her mind, but it clung hard. Why? She would as herself. What was so special about those eyes?

Ayame.

That name. It wasn’t meant for her to hear, but her ears had caught the name escape his lips as she drifted in and out of consciousness during that fight. Who was Ayame? And why did it sound so familiar?

Annoyed, Rai stood quickly from the tub, the water sloshed around the edges, and she toed off the plug to drain the water. She dressed quickly and left her room in a huff. There was no point in thinking, and perhaps she could find something else to waste her time on.

“There you are girly,”

The irritation surged up and Rai scowled at Kass who appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Again, Kass was wearing something tight and much too flamboyant.

“Girly, we need all hands at the shop. Help out since you look acceptable enough today.”

Rai ignored her and brushed past her, knocking into Kass’ shoulder as she walked out into the shop. Chansung and Jinwoon were the first people she saw, and their pleading gazes had her sighing in resignation. She stood to one side of the shop to avoid the crowd; the most she was willing to do was to run around collecting whatever flower the boys needed. She crept towards the small inlet and she grit her teeth.

Victoria sat next to Nichkhun, chatting softly, smiling as if Nichkhun paid any attention to her. In front of the store, Kyrstal and Sulli stepped in with a bag from their shop. “Chansung, the shop closed early for repairs, we’re here to volunteer our services and bring in relief goods,” the latter said, beaming.

Rai groaned. There were already too many people. She looked behind her to tell Kass exactly that, but the redhead was missing again.

“Rai, have you seen Junsu?” Jinwoon asked, freeing himself for a moment from the crowd of people at the counter.

The shinobi frowned. “Why are you asking me, I just got here. Go find him on your tracker or something.”

Jinwoon sighed and turned to Amber who had just squeezed in from the crowd. “Amber, could you go out back and see if Junsu’s in there? I told him to man the cashier today.”

Amber nodded wordlessly and disappeared into the backdoor. Rai’s face crumpled into disbelief. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? What if they find something back there?”

Jinwoon shook his head. “I pulled up all the locks, don’t worry about it. Hey, there are deliveries, do you think you can help? I think I prefer Chansung here than you.”

Rai scoffed. “Yeah, whatever. List?”

She snatched the sheet of paper from the hacker’s hands and turned to leave, but her path was blocked by another one of the customers- a man in a mohawk.

“I’m sorry,” he said, smiling. “Do you work here? I need some help.”

Rai stared blankly at him. “What?”

“Do you have any alternatives to roses? I was thinking they were a little cliche. Maybe these?” he pulled out a stemmed flower from a nearby vase and showed it to her.

Rai’s sneer grew. “That’s a red spider lily, if you want to abandon your girl, then sure why not.”

The man dropped the spider lily back into the vase and pulled out another flower. “These?”

Rai shook her head. “Freesias. You’re telling her she’s immature. How sweet of you.” Another try, and this time she smiled crookedly. “Primrose, desperate much?” Another flower this time from the other side of the room. “Orange lillies, nice. Revenge? Desire? Make up your mind.”

The man sighed in annoyance. “Well what would you suggest?!”

“Get her roses, it’s not that hard a decision.”

…

With the constant ringing of the door chimes, and Victoria’s voice in his ear, even Nichkhun was surprised he hadn’t killed anyone yet. Not that taking a person’s life had become an impulse, but it would have given him such relief to silence the world around him. Silence was now his refuge, it was only in silence that he could clearly hear the now faint and distant sound of June’s laughter.

“Is it true you came from a family of florists?”

Nichkhun frowned, how did June come across this piece of information? “No, not florists, not exactly. I come from a traditional family, so flower arrangements are a specialty of my mom and sisters. I had to sit through all those with them. So no, not florists.”

She hid her laugh behind her knuckles as she continued reading off her notes. Nichkhun wanted to ask her what she kept in that leather journal of hers. When he first saw it, June had only been on the first few leaves, not the journal was almost used up, and it was filled with plain and graphing paper inserts and flags, and clear plastic sticky notes indicating page jumps or supplementary information. June never left without it, no matter where she would go, she always carried it around. It was almost as if it contained her very life.

“So, what’s my name supposed to mean?” she suddenly asked, catching him unaware.

This time it was Nichkhun’s turn to smile. Her name. What an issue it had been, him wanting to call her by her full name, and him trying to convince her to call him by his nickname. “It means eternal protection.”

She smiled, pleased with his answe., “Protection, huh. So my name’s supposed to be some protection charm?”

“Of course in some other parts of the world it symbolizes chastity.”

His quip however fell on deaf ears as June’s earlier expression turned pensive. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you Nichkhun, I promise.”

He should have known that it should have been him that made her that promise. Deep down, Nichkhun had always vowed to protect her, from the moment he laid eyes on her he knew he had to protect her- well, first he wanted to know her name. Still, Nichkhun had always known.

Victoria laid a worried hand on Nichkhun’s shoulder. He was much more receptive to her now, when they had first met almost a year ago, Nichkhun had outright ignored her and walked away from her. Now it appeared that he tolerated her more, allowed her more freedom in her actions. He was still stoic and taciturn next to her, but him not walking away was progress. “What’s wrong?”

He didn’t answer, and Victoria bit her lip. “I wish you’d talk more, I can’t read minds, you know.”

I can’t read minds, you know. Unfortunately.

Nichkhun’s hands froze in the middle of wrapping the camellia stems with twine. He locked gazes with Victoria not wanting to believe what he had just heard. He searched her eyes- they were the same deep brown though not as almond shaped. Dark hair framed Victoria’s face, but they came down in a waterfall of straight hair and not in a cascade of waves. They may have said the same thing, but they weren’t the same girl.

His thoughts wandered back to her journal. Even after two years, he had yet to fully decipher the text and link together whatever he had managed to make out of it. He knew it had something to do with Fortuna, but what he couldn’t wrap his mind around was what June had to do with it- how and why she had been involved.

Thankfully, the day was coming to an end, and as the crowd thinned, so did his remaining patience. As soon as the last customer was out the door, Nichkhun stood from his seat and headed straight for the back room, leaving Victoria, and the rest of Hell, in the shop.

Instead of the sanctuary of an empty room, he found Rai uncharacteristically sitting on one of the seats in the back. Her feet were settled comfortably on top of the chair in front of her, and her hands idly played with the blades on her leather gloves in her hands.

“Bored already?”

She answered him with a petulant sneer, “It’s not like I can kill you in the shop.”

Nichkhun took a seat by Jinwoon’s desk and pulled out a sheaf of papers from the drawer. “I’d like to see you try.”

“I could right now.”

“Can’t, don’t have the time for it.”

“All the better for me.”

“What did you say the scientist said before you killed her?”

“Chornaya Cherepahka? It’s gibberish.”

Nichkhun shook his head. “Nothing ever is.”

“Nichkhun is correct.” Both heads turned to the familiar voice appearing from the back door. Kwon had arrived, followed by both Jia and Fei this time. “Staunton has a kill order for you, unfortunately, he is unable to join us tonight. Are the others done yet?”

It didn’t take long before Chansung, Jinwoon, Junsu, and Kass arrived. Kwon wasted no more time in beginning. “This is Dr. Bulatov, we’ve received information that he is going to be at this benefit at the Black Tortoise, it’s an upscale hall off the district. Be prepared for bodyguards of a similar nature to those you’ve battled before. We also have reason to believe that Park Yoochun and Xiah, the latter identified as Dr. Kim Junsu, a high ranking military surgeon, would both be there.”

Chansung’s grunts of laughter were audible across the room. “Well, there’s one Dr. Kim Junsu.”

Junsu rolled his eyes. “I bet you I’m more good looking than he could ever dream to be.”

Kwon cleared his throat to cut off the banter before it even began. “Let me remind you that this is a benefit, tonight. Fei and Jia have your entry passes, Kass and Nichkhun will come in as guests, while Chansung, Junsu and Rai will go undercover inside. Take the targets down as soon as you are able to get them alone.”

“Can’t I go as a guest instead?” Junsu asked, making himself more comfortable in his seat. “Why are you even putting blondie and red out there? I thought we’re supposed to be invisible?”

“As conspicuous as they may be, they no longer hold any public records as you and Chansung do. Besides, Kass is our Bauer, it should be time she demonstrated her capabilities. You, Junsu, are needed elsewhere. Dr. Bulatov never leaves without his research with him, your task is to access that data and send it to Jinwoon. Chansung and Rai can deal with the bodyguards in the perimeter.”

“Why can’t we just wait until the benefit’s over?” Nichkhun asked.

“Because we wouldn’t want to risk another run-in with Schatten, now would we?”

Nichkhun’s eyes narrowed intently at Kwon. Somehow, even he didn’t know how to take Kwon’s statement. Did he mean that Schatten would most definitely be there? Or that there was an uncertain possibility? In the end, it didn’t matter anymore and Nichkhun set his jaw tight. He would just have to deal with Wooyoung should they cross paths.